Following up on our interview with BigBoss repo maintainer Optimo, today we talk to ModMyi co-founder Kyle Matthews who shares the security process and safeguards in place when new jailbreak tweaks are submitted to his repo. While complete security can’t be guaranteed, Matthews explains that the ModMyi repo has done an incredible job along the years to protect its users.

But as he notes, 100% security is impossible, and at the end of the day, the ultimate responsibility is held by jailbreak users themselves. Read on for a fascinating look into one of the most popular repositories on Cydia. Read More

In what appears to be a coincidence, the popular ModMyi repo now appears to be suffering from an outage. This comes just hours after the BigBoss repo waded through extended downtime.

When trying to refresh the ModMyi repo from the Sources tab in Cydia, it hangs and never actually refreshes. Trying to download a tweak from the repo results in a black screen with an eventual timeout—just like what happened with the BigBoss repo yesterday.

Like I said, it could be just a coincidence, but I have to admit that the timing of these two outages is a little odd. Both ModMyi and BigBoss rarely suffer from extended downtime, so it’s weird to see them both suffering from similar outages back to back like this. Read More

The tweak in question, Lock Saver Free, is a tweak that we featured in our new tweaks of the week video last night. Lock Saver Free was published by developer dmarinov, and is unfortunately still available for download on ModMyi as of this post. Read More

It’s the same story with almost every jailbreak. The new jailbreak is released, and folks rush to download all of their favorite jailbreak apps and tweaks. The result is a less than primed experience due to the stress that this places on Cydia and the repos hosting the various packages. After a new jailbreak is released, it usually takes a few days for everything to calm down to somewhat normal levels.

This time around, though, Saurik, and the repo managers appear to be taking preemptive actions to ensure a smoother experience immediately post jailbreak release. While nothing is assured until the inevitable deluge of user requests places stress on the system, you should look forward to a much better experience than in times past. Read More

Two new jailbreak tweaks have recently appeared in Cydia by the same developer, and they both happen to focus on Notification Center. Specifically, these tweaks aim to add handy shortcuts to the Notification Center pull-down pane.

The first tweak on the docket, TorchNC, adds a shortcut to activate the iPhone’s LED flash. There are other tweaks and apps that perform flashlight functions, but I always find it useful to have it within Notification Center, or directly on the Lock screen.

The second tweak, like the first, is a shortcut for Notification Center. Instead of interacting with the iPhone’s LED flash, InstaSnap is a tweak that allows you to quickly access the camera from within Instagram. Seeing as though this tweak doesn’t require the iPhone only LED flash, it works with both the iPhone and iPod touch perfectly fine.

Take a look as we profile both InstaSnap and TorchNC in our walkthrough videos inside… Read More

Dashboard X, the long awaited jailbreak tweak that allows you to add widgets to your Home screen is now available for download on Cydia, via the ModMyi repo for $1.99.

This tweak allows you to take existing widgets created for Notification Center and position them anywhere on your iPhone or iPad Home screen. On top of that, new widgets are being developed, such as Dashtweet, a Dashboard X widget that allows you to send tweets from anywhere on your Home screen. Read More

We’ve talked about AndroidLoader before, the jailbreak tweak that replicates the way Android lets you see all your apps on one single page. Today the app got a major update making the it more appealing than ever.

For those of you who don’t know AndroidLoader, it’s a tweak that allows you to launch, view or hide certain applications, play music, and more, with a simple tap or swipe gesture… Read More

I consider myself a strong advocate of the jailbreak cause. Ever since ziPhone – the first jailbreak ever released – came out, all my iDevices have been jailbroken and even unlocked when possible.

I love jailbreaking for two reasons. First, I jailbreak because I can. If there is a way to do things not the way they were intended to be, then count me in. Second, and more importantly, I jailbreak because it gives me access to a plethora of features that Apple hasn’t implemented yet, or will never implement for some reasons.

For the past three months, I’ve used a stock iPhone 4S. Obviously that was not my choice. There just wasn’t a jailbreak until Absinthe came out last week. But things are back to normal now.

Every time I jailbreak a new device for the first time, I try to reconsider what I really use, and what I really need. I also try to take into account a few things, like stability. If certain apps gave me headaches in the past, I’ll just make sure not to install them again (goodbye WinterBoard). It’s the perfect occasion to start on a clean slate.

With thousands of tweaks and utilities available in Cydia, it’s easy to forget who’s behind them — the developers. These folks are extremely talented, and they provide us with all kinds of tools that make our iDevices a lot more useful.

So ModMyi has just designed a new directory, specifically for jailbreak developers, to allow users to track down their favorite programmers. The portal provides information about the app-makers and links to all of their work… Read More

Everyday I receive multiple emails inquiring about the whereabouts of the DreamStore. For those of you who don’t know, the DreamStore was the means by which one could download and purchase DreamBoard themes, sort of like its own dedicated app store.

Recently, the DreamStore has ceased to function. The app is there, but attempting to use it yields connectivity errors. Apparently, the DreamStore has gone the way of the dodo.

Thankfully for all of the DreamBoard diehards, there are a couple of viable alternatives to the DreamStore; I share them in this video walkthrough… Read More

Frequent iDB readers know how much we love featuring iPhone-related innovations. Inventors have really pushed the envelope of the device’s capabilities, turning it into anything from a 360-degree video camera, to a remote control for RC airplanes.

This new accessory may not necessarily blow your mind, but it might just blow your ear drums. It’s based on the classic “air guitar” dance and promises to use your iPhone to turn those arm-flailing, head-banging motions into actual music… Read More

Camping is a national pastime here in the states. Every summer, thousands of tourists flock to national parks and other campgrounds to take advantage of the beautiful summer weather.

For some folks, camping is a getaway from technology, so they’re not looking for a way to charge their iPhone out in the wilderness. But for iDevice users who insist that their gadgets must accompany them into the woods, here’s the Hatsuden-Nabe USB charger… Read More

Though the iPhone’s virtual keyboard has been named one of the best in the business, it still lacks a fairly major feature: haptic feedback. The little vibration that lets you know a key has been pressed is on nearly every other touchscreen smartphone on the market, but not the iPhone.

Luckily we have the jailbreak community to produce apps and tweaks that makeup for iOS shortcomings. Though there have been haptic feedback utilities in Cydia for quite some time now, they’ve never really impressed me. They always seemed to make iOS slower and less reliable, until now… Read More

Getting rid of a folder can be quite time consuming, depending on how many applications it contains. If there are just 2 or 3 apps then it isn’t that bad, but 5 or more can get pretty tedious.

That’s because to delete a folder, you must first drag every application from the folder back to the home screen. After the last app is removed, the folder deletes itself. A new utility is coming to Cydia though, that could change all of that… Read More

Peter Hajas is the genius behind a different take on the iOS push notification system called MobileNotifer. He’s a prominent figure in the jailbreak community with a wonderful, open-source philosophy on software.

In a recent interview with Joshua Tucker of ModMyi, Peter sat down and talked about some interesting developments. His amazing iOS notification replacement for jailbreakers, MobileNotifer, is entering its fourth beta with some awesome new features. Peter also talked about a very interesting new jailbreak project called “Widge.”

Twenty years ago, I think most of figured we’d be living like the Jetsons by now. But flying cars are few and far between, and the closest thing we have to our own personal robot maid is the Roomba vacuum.

However, there is some neat stuff on the horizon, and this prototype by Roel Vertegaal is certainly proof of that. He is debuting his “Paper Phone” at the Association for Computing Machinery’s Computer Human Interaction conference next week. Folks planning to be in attendance should preset their faces to stunned… Read More

We’ve told you about MyGreatFest, the jailbreaking event that will allow thousand of iDevice hackers to congregate. It looks like the folks over at ModMyi also see jailbreaking as a great way for folks to connect.

It appears they are using Meetup.com, a website geared to help organize a local group or find one in your area, as a vehicle for this endeavor. From Tampa, Florida to Everett, Washington, these ‘meetups’ between jailbreakers have already started to take place… Read More

I had a scary experience last night. As I was searching for a certain tweak in Cydia, I noticed that I wasn’t getting the results I was looking for. So I searched for a few more apps and tweaks, and I kept getting no results. I thought about it for a minute, and then realized that every item I had searched for was from the BigBoss repo.

I’ve recently upgraded to the iOS 4.3.1 jailbreak, and I haven’t gotten to play around with my main iPhone setup that much yet.

To my surprise, the BigBoss repo was broken in Cydia. BigBoss is a pre-installed repo in Cydia, so it’s very odd that it wasn’t working. The good news is that there’s a way to re-add default Cydia repos without re-jailbreaking the iPhone… Read More

A few days ago, we reported that Scion, a subsidiary of Toyota, was trying to break into the jailbreak scene with innovative marketing methods. They were the first major corporation to direct positive attention to the community, since its inception in 2007.

This was exciting for a couple of reasons. First, a major corporation advertising in Cydia certainly made jailbreaking seem more legitimate. It also meant that other companies might follow Scion’s lead.

Multiple major brand names marketing to jailbroken devices would have meant more recognition and credibility to the community as a whole. It appears that the silence from Apple was too good to be true. ModMyi is reporting today that they were asked by Apple to remove the Scion theme from their Cydia repo…. Read More